Jane Doe
Jane Doe, also known as Blondie, is the primary protagonist of both Blood is Mine and Blood is Drawn. She is the character that readers most commonly see and play through. In Blood is Mine, her actions are mostly dictated by reader input in the comments of the page, and are generally enacted either based on majority vote, or based on what Morgenstern thinks would be interesting, or occasionally multiple smaller suggestions are all compiled into one page. As Blood is Drawn is based on the already completed first chapter, her actions in this are largely set in stone and are not influenced by readers. During Chapter 1: The Hospital, she was referred to in emails between doctors as a Jane Doe, and introduced herself to Mr. Vasquez as Jane Doe rather than reveal her true name. As such, readers usually refer to her as Jane. Other characters in the comic commonly address her as Blondie, a nickname originally perpetuated by Michelle that has spread to the rest of her party. It is confirmed, however, that Dr. Finch still addresses her by her real name. Originally, Jane appeared as a young woman with long blonde hair, wearing a bloodied nurse uniform with bloody bandages wrapped around her arms, leg, and head. She was missing an eye following an accident before the events of the comic began. In Chapter 2: Blood on Mars, she undergoes an appearance change when she elects to dye her hair brown and get a bioprinted eye to replace her lost eye. In Chapter 7, she traded her brunette hair colour to the Tradesmen for information, and was left with strawberry blonde or ginger hair. She likes cats and the colour pink. In Move towards the stage, it was revealed that her real full name is Mine Ametsuchi. "Mine" (pronounced me-nay) is a Japanese name meaning "peak mountain child". Her surname, Ametsuchi, means "heaven and earth" and was chosen to be a play on her parentage. Early Life Jane Doe was born into a wealthy family in the Upper Tiers. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom and her father worked as a stock trader. At some point before the events of the story, her mother fell ill and passed away. Shortly after this, her father was killed in a mugging. Sometimes, her mother and father would take her to the higher tiers, where the stars were visible, to stargaze. Before the events of the comic, Jane Doe worked as a nurse in a middle-tier hospital. It took her two trains to get to work. In Chapter 2: Blood on Mars, it was revealed that her mother was, in fact, an alien, and Jane herself hatched from an egg. In Chapter 3: Unfathomable Hate, Mom's Red revealed that her father was over a hundred years old, and had originally worked for Zone Fifty. The two met while Dad was working a radio tower that was sending signals into space in an attempt to make contact with aliens. Over time, as Mom took a more human form and began to think like a human as well, she fell in love with Dad and the two helped each other to escape Zone Fifty and forge a new life together. Jane's mother was very insistent that Jane have a "normal life", and did not tell her about her heritage. Attack, "Death", and Subsequent Accident On her way to work roughly a month before the events of the comic began, Jane Doe was attacked by a group of men from the lower tiers and injected with Save the Queen. Her body rejected the drug. She fought through the drug-induced haze and eventually made her way home to bed, bleeding from her pores. She was presumably found here at a later date, apparently having died from this reaction. However, she was not as dead as those who found her had thought. She awoke in a body bag shortly after being found, and panicked, somehow sliding into her own blood and rising from her bloodstained sheets in her home. Here, she woke up roughly a month later and prepared for work, assuming that it had all been a nightmare. This time, on her way to work, she was involved in a car crash also involving vehicles powered by Tobu CyberBrains that had their brakes cut. She survived this, and was taken to the closest hospital, which happened to be the one she worked at. The Hospital Main article: Chapter 1: The Hospital After the car crash, Jane Doe awoke in a hospital room with no recollection of how she had ended up there, or of the past month at all, to something aggressive banging on the door of her room. She promptly hid in a cupboard until the monster responsible had wandered off. She then set about exploring the hospital to find a way out. She eventually discovered emails between doctors that revealed she was apparently supposed to be dead, and also discovered a great many monsters all intent on killing any human still alive within the hospital itself. She also met Michelle, a young police officer who had originally been sent to apprehend her but decided instead to help her, and Dr. Finch, a doctor working in the hospital that she recognized from her time working there. The three of them would eventually manage to destroy the monsters in the hospital and escape. In the month following this, Jane, Michelle, and Dr. Finch would attempt to understand what had happened and also understand Jane's new abilities. Personality Despite Jane's actions being dictated largely by the community, a distinct personality has emerged. Jane has been shown to be very forgetful, often forgetting important details like the fact that she owns a car, or has her own computer. She also cares very deeply for her friends and those around her. She dislikes causing unnecessary harm and will go to great lengths to help people. She shows little regard for her own personal safety when it comes to helping or protecting others, often rushing headlong into dangerous situations to protect those around her, or those she cares about or feels responsible for. Jane has also developed some arguably strange habits. She will often climb into ventilation shafts in order to explore, much to the amusement of her friends. She also seems to enjoy looting, often searching the pockets of deceased individuals and taking their things as her own. These quirks can be entirely attributed to reader input dictating her actions. Occasionally, these habits lead to trouble as her enemies become aware of them, such as trapped vents or bugged cell phones. Abilities Main article: Jane's Abilities Jane Doe is a trained nurse and medical professional, and as such has knowledge of the human body and how it works, to a point. She is also trained in first-aid and is able to drive a car. On top of her standard abilities, she also possesses the ability to control and sense through any object or living creature that contains or has been injected with her blood. When sensing through a living creature, such as another human, she is able to hear, see, feel etc. anything and everything they do. She can also communicate mentally with them. Any direct orders she gives an individual that has been injected with her blood are carried out even if they do not want to, but commanding people requires effort on Jane's part proportionate to how unwilling her target is to carry out her order. When sensing through an inanimate, unconscious, or nonliving target, she struggles to get more than a vague impression of where the target is or what is going on around it. She is also able to feel when a living creature injected with her blood dies, whether she is sensing through it at the time of death or not. Jane has also become very skilled at pulling material from her "Red." Or the infinite source of alien power, mass and space, which is behind her ablility to control and sense through her blood. She had demonstrated an ablility to form simple "golems" or small constructs out of bone and meat in the Red and pull them out of the Red into the world. She has also made armor, tools and weapons out of bone and caratin for the party using this method. And in comic 1019 she started to learn to pull blood directly into her veins, this will allow her to draw much more blood and not suffer the consequences of blood loss by simply making more blood for herself. Relationships Michelle Jane first met Michelle in The Hospital, where she went down a vent to find Michelle injured and trapped in the break room in Go down the vent. Jane got to know Michelle a bit as she spent time running around the hospital to find supplies to treat Michelle's injuries. When Jane came across Mr. Vasquez and was able to unblock the break room door, it was revealed that he and Michelle had been sent to apprehend Jane, dead or alive. However, since Jane showed compassion and kindness to Michelle, she turned her weapon on Vasquez to protect her new friend. In the time lapse between Chapter 1 and 2, Jane laid low with Michelle at Michelle's home in the Lower Tiers for approximately a month. When Fuse questioned whether Michelle could really trust Jane shortly after they first met in Howler's apartment, Michelle immediately grew defensive, proving her loyalty and genuine trust in Jane. Besides her unyielding trust in Jane's position as a leader in their group (she constantly defers to Jane to make final decisions and hardly questions them), Michelle has always been particularly fond of Jane, ruffling her hair and poking gentle fun at her for being forgetful. While she was more reserved in response to Jane's hugs at first (i.e. more awkward) she has over the course of the subsequent chapters to The Hospital become more relaxed with hugging Jane back. Her initial view of Jane put her on a bit of a pedestal (which was literally seen in Michelle's mindscape during the forced-sync) and she scoffed when Fuse wondered what Jane might be afraid of, expressing her opinion that 'scary stuff is scared of Jane'. She correctly guessed that Jane's fear would be losing her friends, but did not fully comprehend her own value in Jane's eyes until Jane spoke to her about what she had witnessed in the forced-sync. Michelle seemed to find it hard to believe that Jane would care this much about her specifically, as she told Jane she was a replaceable part, but Jane told her otherwise - she doesn't want any other tube cop, she wants Michelle. Since The Hospital, Michelle has been shown to care immensely for Jane and will go to great lengths to protect her, often times disregarding her own personal safety to keep Jane from greater harm (the hospital revisit is a prime example). Jane has, likewise, grown very protective and attached to Michelle, and makes absolutely certain Michelle knows how much she means to Jane. When readers do not specifically dictate who should go with who during party splits, Michelle will often follow Jane around without question. Michelle is responsible for the nickname "Blondie". Hug count: Jane has hugged Michelle 7''' times, to date: * The first time was when Michelle had been injected with Jane's blood to free her from StQ, * the second time was in the warehouse when Michelle had a scare with the spider hallucination, * the third time was in Jane's car right after she woke up from the forced-sync, * the fourth time was when Jane told Michelle she would find a way to extend her life and that Michelle was important to her, * the fifth time was after Jane was accosted by Prophet in their revisit to the hospital, * the sixth time was after the gang successfully trapped Edison back in her canister, * the seventh time was when Jane hugged Michelle (and others) the night she tampered with memories to awaken Macland. Dr. Finch Dr. Finch originally worked at the same hospital as Jane and recognized her when the two met in Try the door. It is unknown what their relationship was prior to the events of The Hospital, but it can be assumed that they likely only knew each other in a professional sense. However, since Jane saved his life and the two survived the hospital, they have grown much closer as friends. Dr. Finch often provides advice, knowledge, and insight into things that Jane herself does not know much about. He also allowed Jane, Michelle, Fuse, and Caius to stay at his house. Dr. Finch is fond of Jane, is utterly fascinated by her abilities, and is willing and ready to help her in any way he can. He often articulates his opinions quite clearly when advising Jane on what he thinks might be the best course of action, but generally defers to her to make final decisions. Dr. Finch has also confided in Jane the motivations behind his newfound determination post-The Hospital, and readily allowed Jane to sync into his mind during the break-in, indicating that he trusts Jane a great deal. When he was almost killed by Carpenter and taken in by the Feds, Jane was very stressed the entire time and worked tirelessly to rescue him. During this time, Dr. Finch also proved he is completely loyal to Jane and refused to balk to any insinuations or accusations against Jane's alien nature, even while under immense pressure. When Dr. Finch was eventually rescued, he openly expressed his relief and readily told the group that the experience in the federal bunker would have been much more terrifying had Jane not been constantly been at his mental side and reminding him that the gang was thinking of him and working to get him free. Because Jane gave Dr. Finch a blood transfusion to save his life during the events in The Hospital, Dr. Finch uniquely has a large amount of Jane's blood inside of him - currently, he has the most of her blood, compared to all of the other party members. '''Hug count: Jane has hugged Dr. Finch 3''' times, to date: * The first time was after they successfully rescued Dr. Finch from captivity and removed the tracker safely, * the second time was after Dr. Finch fixed Jane's lacerated back with the bio-printer on Mars, * the third time was when Jane hugged Dr. Finch (and others) the night she tampered with memories to awaken Macland. Fuse Fuse and Jane met in Howler Ferrings' apartment in Tell her about the room downstairs. Despite the less than friendly start to their relationship, thanks in large part to Save the Queen, Jane grew quickly attached to Fuse. He has proven to be a good friend and an invaluable ally, willing to put himself in danger if it means it will help Jane. Fuse and Jane have paired up rather often on missions - they are small enough to fit in vents and are more stealthy than the others. Jane felt his bewilderment and fear the moment he was injected with her blood and released from the thrall of StQ, conveying to her his genuine desire to not kill anyone at that time. This led to Jane trusting him from the get go. Fuse, on the other hand, was initially suspicious and questioned Michelle whether Jane was really someone who could be trusted. Due to his more guarded and paranoid personality, he was extremely reluctant about syncing, and straight-up stated he only wanted Jane to sync for computer-related issues. It did not take too long for Fuse to trust Jane had noble intentions, however, and several days later he and Michelle spoke to Caius in Jane's car to convince him of that. Fuse often makes blunt remarks about Jane's alien makeup and notes that Jane cannot fully control it, which is justified given he was also direct witness to Jane's attempt to regenerate back in the warehouse. He is able to empathise with Jane's struggle to control the alien side of her, however, because it mirrors to some extent his own struggle to control his pyrokinesis. He has given Jane solid advice on that front. Fuse was more guarded and reserved at the start, refusing to let Jane sync to read his thoughts in the warehouse, and later on responding defensively when Jane asked him about his past. Over time, however, Jane has managed to get him to lower his guard a little. He confided in Jane when she asked him what had him so riled up in the warehouse, and also shared about his childhood trauma regarding pyrokinesis. When Jane hugged him after the run-in with Prophet at the hospital, Fuse was awkward about it, but hugged her back. When Fuse was badly burnt after the episode with Macland's force-sync, Jane struggled to drag him into a bathtub and while Fuse was unconscious with water running over him, Jane cried a little on her own - the first time she ever cried in Blood is Mine. The moment was indicative of how much Jane's friends matter to her. Fuse eventually revealed to Jane in a private moment within Bunker C that he found it difficult to ask Jane for help, or think of himself as her friend, as he felt partly responsible for the mess they found themselves in since he used to sell Save the Queen and ran in the same circles as the people who attacked and injected Jane. Jane made it clear to him that he is her friend, regardless of his past, and told him he could tell her anything, anytime. Since this event, Fuse has become notably more relaxed around everyone. '''Hug count: Jane has hugged Fuse 5''' times, to date: * The first time was when Fuse turned into a roach-man in Macland's mindscape and he was frustrated, * the second time was after Jane returned to the motel after having been accosted by Prophet in the hospital revisit, * the third time was when Jane hugged him in reassurance of their friendship in Bunker C after Fuse confessed he used to deal StQ, * the fourth time was after the gang successfully trapped Edison back in her canister, * the fifth time was when Jane hugged Fuse (and others) the night she tampered with memories to awaken Macland. Caius Caius first appeared as a guard outside Club Elegance. However, he and Jane did not really meet or interact until Caius was kidnapped by Knox and Macland Row, and tied up in the Warehouse. The two first meet face-to-face in Save Caius. After Jane, Michelle, and Fuse rescue him from the warehouse, he decided to stick around and help the party. Caius was initially a bit bemused by Jane, skeptical when Jane told him she was on her way to rescue him, and completely bewildered once he discovered that the 'devil' speaking through him turned out to be, well, Jane. After Michelle and Fuse recounted Jane's actions to Caius, to explain Jane's intentions, he called her a 'sweet' kid but also seemed to think she was being a little naïve. Although Caius started being indignant when asked to do things (such as submit to a tracker test, or go in as a fake tube cop to face Jury - he would always give into it, though, regardless of how he reacted initially), over time he has become more compliant to Jane's requests. In witnessing Jane's determination to rescue her friends and overcome the conspiracy, Caius has become more attached to Jane and shows a protective streak towards her, albeit more subtly than Michelle does. He will often go first when it comes to unfamiliar situations, just in case it gets dangerous. His opinion of Jane was mostly clearly expressed when he was speaking to Jury about her, and why he chose to follow her lead; he finds Jane's kindness and politeness still a bit bewildering given her powers - especially when comparing Jane to Thale - and stated upfront that he would protect her, no matter what. When Caius was at Jane's house during the fake!Michelle and fake!Caius break-in, he deliberately did not choose to kill fake!Michelle in deference to Jane, who he knows almost always goes for the non-lethal option. Considering Caius has little qualms about killing in self-defense, his actions showed he has much respect towards Jane and her feelings. He also helped Jane pack her stuffed animals from the house, thinking she'd want them. When Dr. Finch, Caius and Jane were discussing the fate of Dr. Deaglan Camp, Caius expressed that he didn't think it was right for Jane to end someone's life by ceasing their brain activity and suggested he be the one to end Dr. Camp's life with a bullet, indicating that he has a particularly soft spot for Jane and would rather take the brunt of disturbing or difficult matters in her stead. Caius was 'surprisingly calm' about Jane's first hug, and since then has shown he is quite receptive to them. When Jane hugged him for comfort, he responded immediately by hugging her 'tightly', proving that he is a go-to for comforting hugs. When Caius was dying after the raid at the irradiated magic mushroom producing abandoned power plant, Jane had a moment alone with him, where she held his hand and told him that she loved him. '''Hug count: Jane has hugged Caius 6''' times, to date: * The first time was when Jane returned to the motel after having been accosted by Prophet in the hospital revisit, * the second time was after Jane and Caius dealt with the fake!Michelle and fake!Caius intruders in Jane's home, * the third time was after the gang successfully trapped Edison back in her canister, * the fourth time was when Jane hugged him in need of comfort immediately after she lost the memory of her parents, * the fifth time was when Jane hugged Caius (and others) the night she tampered with memories to awaken Macland, * the sixth time was when Jane (gently) hugged Caius the morning after his brain transplant. Trivia * Morgenstern has stated that not revealing her name was not intentional at the start. However, it has become his personal running joke. * Her eyes are green. * Fuse, Caius, and Michelle know her name but prefer to call her Blondie. * Dr. Finch is the only person who still uses her real name. * Her greatest fear is losing her friends. * She still carries Vasquez' old police badge with her everywhere she goes. Despite being an actual, official police badge, it is made of plastic. * She apparently does have a 'real name'. Morgenstern has said readers will be mad when he reveals it. ** It has since been revealed to be '''Mine Ametsuchi''. ''Largely, the reaction was positive, at least among users on the Discord server, defying Morgenstern's expectations. * The only time she spoke (half-whisper) directly in the webcomic was in Comic #26. * Mine was the death of Prophet, fulfilling the old adage, "Mine is the fear-killer." Category:Characters Category:Protagonists